My Big Hairy Audacious Goal

The 7 principals from Good to Great.
1. Particle Principals
2. Confront the brutal facts
3. Stockdale paradox
4. The Hedgehog Concept
5. A culture of discipline
6. The Flywheel and the Doom Loop
7. Building vision


My BHAG

Using the 7 principals from Good to Great my BHAG is to build a

Blog on a Blog - Jason Calacanis

Jason Calacanis was a blog I decided to look at today. Jason is an internet entrepenuer, starting up in 1976 a computer newsletter that has exploded into at 300 page annual report. He is nicknamed "yearbook editor of sillicon valley". Since he has started up and ran several buisnesses becominf CEO of Netscape and Weblogs inc, and starting up Mahalo, a people powered search engine.
Jason has a blog that would intrest many in his feild. Aside from his personal posting's of pictures of his dogs and his last nght dinner, he likes to give his insight's into everythng from politics, to the newest videogame releases. But what's of most interest is he likes to blog on state's of certain internet companys, and what they are doing right, and what they could work on fixing. It is an interesting read on a CEO's view on other competitive and non-competitive online websites and buisnesses.

Guilt Today in Luxury Buying

In today's economy, customers are suffering from buyers guilt. Luxury outlets like La Senza and Guichi are losing customers to the guilt of walking outside of stores with big shopping bags filled with expensive items. This is one reason for the rise on Internet shopping this year.

BMW is a luxury brand that is directly affected by this customer guilt. Their customers are looking for other buys to not feel the guilt of spending lots of money and looking flashy in a shaky economy.

If I ran the BMW company, I would fight back this guilt with offers and unique specials that no one else would offer in a time of uncertainty, and give incentive to buy because of a deal you could find no where else

For instance, my company could fight guilt by offering a free set of rims or Mag's on your BMW, to increase the value of your purchase, thus justifying the customers purchase of a luxury item.

Grafitti Removal Service

A franchise was offered to the sharks in one episode of the Shark Tank. It was a graffiti removal business, which operated out of a single truck per operation, and used a secret chemical which would be used by the business.

The offer from the Paul, the business owner, was $350,000 for 15% equity in the company. Kevin O'leary immediately made him an offer of $350,000 for 110% because of how young the business was.

Two high offers where made for 75% of the business, but both we're rejected by Paul, knowing that the business had more potential than that. Those offers would also make Paul an employee of his own business and not a sole owner.

I believe this episode was a good example of the sharks jumping the gun, and underestimating a company. If they had looked at the company honestly, I believe they would see the potential in it and offer a reasonable investment.

Souls Calling

Gena Cotria appeared on the shark tank proposing her buisness for investment. Her buisness was a gift and accessory line of products aimed at having a positive impact in the world. She was asking for $150,000 for 25%.

Gena was quickly shot down by the sharks when she said that she had invested $100,000 into the buisness, but have only made $18,000 in profit last year alone.

Instead of investing in Gena's buisness, the sharks all decided to add their word of advice. Kevin told her that her emotions should not be a force behind a buisness, and that her buisness is worth nothing because "numbers never lie." There was a consensus between the sharks, all beleiving that she should let the buisness go.

Jump Forward

Today we watched an episode of sharktank. Two entrepreneurs where selling their high school football social network site for 15% for $150,000. The end offer was $600,000 for 50% because two of the sharks wanted in and they believed that the company needed more money to succeed.

I liked this episode becaused it showed the value investors will have in a company with a good idea. Two of the sharks fought over the company, and began to raise eachother for the invsting in the company. Eventually they both saw that working against eachother, one of them would have to pay more than they should. So they asked the entrepenuers to leave and agreed on a 50-50 deal in company.

I beleive this was a good deal on all sides because the entrepenuers had gained much more than they went in asking for, and both of the investors shared 50% of the company with half as much money.

SHARK TANK - Mr. Poncho and the Uroclub

A young couple from New York introduced their product on the Skark Tank. A little designer pocket that acted as a case for ipods and phones, and a little coil for your headphones to not get tangled. The product was immediately shot down by the sharks, as the idea was not very new and unique and really had no potential for a business. I agree with the sharks, as if I, myself, wouldn't buy the product, I would not invest in it.

The second entrepreneur was a urologist / Golfer who was marketing a product by himself for golfers. The idea was a club that you could discreetly pee into to relieve yourself on the golf course. Although most of the sharks saw it as a novelty item with no real potential, one shark, and avid golfer, bought the product for 25,000 for 70% of the product. This was a good deal on both sides I believe.

Eric Van Maren - Guest Speaker

Last week we had Eric Van Maren, of Van Maren inc. come into class and speak. He was a graduate of Sardis in 1971, him and his brother started is business from debt, today they have built over 18,000 homes and many other facilities in the Fraser valley and the states. He started his speech saying, he has been preparing for his speech his whole life, and also stated from the beginning that "not everyone is suited to be an entrepreneur."

Eric had also gave 7 key attributes he believes all entrepreneurs should have.
1. Work Hard - Be prepared to work harder than your employees
2. Be passionate about what you choose to do - Love what you do.
3. Learn from your mistakes
4. Guard your reputation - you spend a life time building your reputation.
5. Select good partners - use mentors, ask for help
6. Hire smart employee's.
7. Stick with what you are good at.


He also quoted donald rumsfeld during the Gulf War as an important approach to entrepenuership.
"there are known knowns, ther are known unknowns, But there is also unknown unknowns"
Which Eric explained is a way of planning for the future and being prepared for things we know will come, and things we wont see coming.

Google

Google was a market creating companies. While there were search engines available like google, it was google that was able to create a profitable market from it and build it's entrepreneurial style type. Founded by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, their goal was to "organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful" and they believe that their company is bridging the gap between people in the world.
The way google conducts work is also what makes the company succeed. Their company headquarters is very relaxed. There is a starbucks in the building, and lots of leisure activities like pool tables and it's own gym for staff. The staff is also encouraged to spend some of their time taking onprojects their interested in. These projects resulted in some of google's most successul launches like Gmail and Google News.
Google also innovated the market in other ways. Instead of charging for new services, they are all free. In this way no new competitor can get a competitive edge on price. They are also monopolizing the market in many ways by putting their name with every new product to come out. With the success of the iphone, google partnered up with Apple offered it services to iphone users.
Google can be considered a niche company, and an existing market entering company. For instance, when Map Quest first started to create a market, Google quickly responded with Google Maps, a free application. But, Google also created new online markets with launches of Google News and Gmail.
Today, google is still considered relativly young company. But, Google has changed the way in which people now connect and has an even larger impact on how we use the internet today.

Blue Ocean Strategy

The Blue Ocean strategy explains many different things about businesses such as what happens when businesses directly compete against each other, Teaches you how to build new businesses where none existed, this is all great information to know if you really want to make a successful business.
When businesses directly compete with each other everything becomes over crowded, so all the businesses eventually suffer from reduced market share, growth and profit which is why its a good idea to differentiate your self from other businesses. Instead of copying already successful businesses you should work on creating a business that stands out from the rest which is what the Blue Ocean strategy is all about and explains to you. Some examples of Blue Ocean Businesses are Cell Phones and Biotechnology, these companies never existed 30 years ago but now are some of the largest companies today.
When creating a business you should always focus on the overall view of the business and not at the stats, if you focus on the stats you will start to loose what you where going for at the beginning and you will start to see your business quickly change.
You should try and focus on potential costumers instead of focusing on your already current customers. If you want to make your company grow you should focus on getting more potential customers.
The four "Get the Strategic Sequence Right" steps are:
1: Why should anyone buy your product?
2: Is it fairly priced to appeal to a large audience?
3: Can you create it at the right cost to create a profit?
4: Are there any impediments to discourage the market from accepting your product?These four steps are crucial to follow when creating a new business or product as just having something fancy will not make you successful, you got to make sure you are doing things right when promoting your product and when selling your product, because even if it's the best in the market no one will purchase it if you over price it.

A company that i feel is Blue Ocean Strategy company is Apple, I feel Apple is a Blue Ocean company because they are always producing new ideas for products, for example the iPod, iPhone both of these are great examples of what makes Apple unique from their competitors, for the iPod they where the first to create a small device that can play videos you can watch, the iPhone allows people to easily call friends, play games, surf the web and tons of other great things. Those are only just two products from apple that they created to be different from other companies. I feel Apple is a great company that comes up with new and great ideas that other companies soon start to copy

Ken Robinson - Creativity in schools

Children are creative
creativity is held back by being wrong
we grow out of creativity
all school have same heichrchy of classes: Math, English, Science
purpose of edication to produce university proffessors
over population, degrees arnt worth anything
intellegence is dynamic, brain is interactive which produces creativity
rethink the capabillity of the mind
see our creativity for the ho
pe that it is.
educated out of being creative.
Fear of being wrong holds back creativity.

Ken Robinson spoke a TED conference this year, and titled his talk 'creativity in schools'.
Ken spoke about education and how we should rethink the system. He explained that the way education is set up, the highest acheivement would be to become a professor. This makes no room for the arts like dancing, msuic, and art. The education system favours left minded people, who get praise and move along in the system, while artists and dancers can be demonized as being bi-polar or just fidgety.
Ken points out that all children are creative. This is mostly from the fact that they are not afraid of being wrong or rejection of their ideas. But as children grow older, they taught what is right and wrong, and thus, limiting their scope for creativness. Ken beleive that people dont grow into being creative, but they are grown out of being creative with the education system used today.

What I tihnk is most important to take out of this talk from Ken is to not be afraid to be creative and make mistakes. To pursue different things like a child would, and have a child like curiosity for different things.( To approach different things like a child would)

Sam Walton: Bargain Billionaire

Sam Walton was born March 19, 1918. A famous entrepenuer who grew up on a farm, and kept his roots as a farm boy even as America's richest entrepenuers of his time.
Growing up, he showed all signs of a great leader; being the team captain of many of the school's sports teams and even running a small courier buisness through highschool. His father was an oppurtunist buisnessman taht traveled town to town buying and selling properties for discount. Sam's admiration for his father and how he conducted buisness would create a model for his retail venture that would become wal-mart.

His reatil model was simple. Sam bought items at large and in bulk, and undercut the competitors in the area with lower profit margins. This would put his buisness and family in debt, at one point 2 million dollares of personal debt, but with the increasing customer buisness and franchise expansion was able to gain profits to excell in the market. By 1980 Wal-Mart had a revenue of 4 Billion dollars a year.

The Bobble Place

Todays episode of the shark tank featured a guy proposing a bobble head business. This business would take a picture of you and in a few weeks a bobble head would come back in your image. This business would be easily located in malls with a kiosk that would take you picture and let the customer pick a body. The business proposed was an untested spin off idea of the original business that was online, but offered the same service.But 'The Guy' offered no stake in his original business that was successful.

The sharks found this greedy, as 'The Guy' was offering no stake in his original business, and was asking for a 'handout' for an untested business. So, instead of making offers on the proposed business, they made offers on the original business, and wanted nothing to do with the proposed business. The offers put out were around $100,000 for about 20% in the business. At one point two of the sharks were ready to going half and half on a deal of $125,00 for 20%. 'The Guy' declined all offers as he was willing no stake in his original business.

If I we're in the position -of teh sharks, I would feel I would do the same thing. I mean, The guy essentialy was dangling his successful buisness infront of the sharks, but offered none of it, instead proposing a buisness wiht a huge amount of risk attached to it. In any case it would be a very risky investment for anyone. I would also agree that this guy was just being greedy. Instead of using his own profits to expand on his buisness, he didn't want to risk his own investment and thought the sharks could work that part of the deal.

Atomic Tea

On one episode of 'The Dragons Den', Jessica and Russel, two entrepenuers, had a product to pitch. Atomic Tea. A tasty little drink with one already successful outlet. Together, the two had already put $125,000 of their own money into the franchise, and we're looking for a litle help and some more money. Their original offer was $125,000 for 25%.

The sharks, having immediately liked the product, and the direction of the franchise, all wanted a bit in the franchise, but none we're willing to goto 25% for $125,00. Instead they all decided to split $150,000 for %50.1 stake in the franchise. Jessica and Russel took their offer.

I beleive this was a smart move on their part, as the decision was probably based on a bigger picture. Giving up a little of the buisness and income, for better growth of the franchise. Putting the franchise first instead of profits.

Seth Godin - Sliced Bread!

Safe is risky. This is what Seth Godin wanted to get across; That the old marketing complex does not work anymore. Theold marketing complex of making mass appealing products to the average person does not work anymore. The average person does not have enough time to consider marketing of products or different products of choice.
The only products that sell in todays world are products that spread by mouth. The only products that spread by mouth are the ones worth talking about. Remarkable Products (hence the word remarkable 'worth remarking about'). These are the ideas that sell. Ideas on the edge, that are not the norm that give people something worth talking about. Seth coins the term "ideas that spread, win".
Seth also points out how the two most popular veichles today are the Hummer and the mini convertable. The biggest and smallest car's. These 'different from the norm' veichles are what grabs peoples attention and has them talking.
He leaves the audience with 'Fringe is where the action is'. Telling the audience to look beyond the norm and try ideas and products that will grabs people attention, and have them talking.

Element Bars - Negotiation

1. Doesn't give up

2. Features and Benefits

3. First person to name a price loses

4.Force others to make an offer

5.Meet in the Middle.

Today we watched a great episode of 'shark tank'. There was a young entrepenuer trying to sell his buisness that makes customizable energy bars.

Immediatly 3 of the sharks dropped out of his offer, which was 150k for 15% equity. But when the sharks said they were out of the deal, Jonthan, the entrepenuer, wouldn't give up. He would recite the features and benefits of his products and what potential it had.

Since the price set by the entrepenuer was to high. He had the sharks offer a price. But the settled investment was met in between.

Wispots - Shark Tank

A man not only invested his time and effort into a company, but also his mortgage and kids college funds into the product of Wispots. The product itself was pretty much obsolete, being pointed by one investor, that anyone who was in need of this product would have already purchased a PDA. But there is still a lot to learn from this failed investment.

The basic failure of this entrepreneur was not entirely his fault. He built his idea from the ground up and was completely convinced of selling his product to a respectable investment price. But during the creation of this product, he failed to see his errors in judgement. like the market value of the product or what i was really worth. Most of this was contributed from lack of mentors or anyone other than himself to challenge his thinking.
Another mistake the investors noticed was this entrepreneur had put to much on the line. He was too desperate and foolish. He had put his mortgage on the line and his children's college fund on the line and needed to sell his product.

Two things of Importance.
1. A team of advisors is important for added perspective on business move and risks.
2. Having others finance the idea will give more lenience to you business and allow for more risks.

Mr. Todds Pies

A successful business owner of a local wholesale pie bakery went onto the shark tank. His business grossed about $850,000 a year with about 20% profit each fiscal year. This is what was selling on his business.

The sharks heard out his story, and what he was selling the business for; 460k for 10% of the company. But was eventually shot down and cornered to the last offer of 230k for 50%, which he took.

What I can take away from this, is the common situation of over-valuing your company. it is important to maintain and perspective on your company. If you over-value your company, you scare away potential investors, and seem too optimistic.

College Foxes Packing Boxes

During the last episode I watched of "The Shark Tank", there were two young entrepenuers who had started a very successful buisness 'College hunks moving junk'. They were on the show to try to sell their new spin-off buissness idea 'College Foxes Packing Boxes'. The investors wouldn't bite, figureing they all wanted a part off the 'College hunks moving junk', so they began making offers on the "Hunk's" instead of the "Foxes". The two young entrepenuers turned down there offers, as they did not have the intention to sell off their "Hunks" buisness.

In my opinion, These young entrepenuers were only on the show to sell off a half-baked idea that is a spin-off from an already successful buisness. A quick and easy buck for them to earn, while still keeping profits of an already successfull and proven buisness. Essentially selling off the buisness formula.
This is smart in the fact that they planned to use their proven formula to sell off a a similar

Steve Jobs Stanford Guest Speaker.

Steve jobs recently made a speech to young graduates of Stanford University. He outlined his success in sereveral areas and companies; such as Apple, Pixar Animations, and NeXT. But the most important point he was making was the journey that he took to come to this successful point in his life.

Steve was a college dropout. He had no idea what he wanted to do going through college and eventually dropped out thinking it was going nowhere. At the time steve wasn't sure what he loved, but he followed what he was interested in, such as typography, where he dropped into colege courses of interest. He realized this had no practical application, but that it was what he was interested in. Steve said looking back, his class oin typography is what resulted in the design of the personal computer to day, something that he never thought would have resulted, but in retrospect was in valuable for his success today.

There are three valuable points that steve tried to make across:
-Love what you do
-Follow your heart
-Live like it is your last day

Richard Branson

Richard Branson is a successful entrepreneur with over 200 businesses and a collective revenue of $25 Billion dollars a year. A keen understanding for business and markets, he is continually developing ideas and business models. He eclairs his company "virgin" a market shaking company. A company that usually enters pre-existing markets, and changes the dynamics with either quality service, good brand identity, new ideas of re-inventing the market, or all of the above.

Virgin has secured it's place as well established company all around the world, and is quickly identified with Richard Branson, the founder of all things virgin. Raised in London, Branson was a dyslexic high school dropout. But, his excel in sports and captain of the teams was a large boost in confidence he needed to begin his legacy.

There are a few things I can learn from Richard Branson and his success.
- Constantly taking on new business ventures, while playing it smart and thinking of the bigger picture. ( For instance, selling of parts of his company for revenue and keep virgin employment.)
- He runs his business with passion. (It is diffidently his life.)
- Success is detrimend by how long you can stick to it, learn from failures, and adapt.
- A business is made of people full or PASSION.

Arnold

Arnold Shwarzenegger.

I recently watched a biography on the great arnold shwarzenegger. An Austrian farmboy who came to America and truely acheived the American dream. Arnold, from a seemingly humble background, started his great journey when he was about 15 when he decided to take up body building. Through his drive, discipline, and determination at the young age of 15, he quickly acheived his goals and gained and came to America to acheive the title Mr.Universe. From there he made a bigger name for himself in Hollywood,

Personality Assessment

Today I had my first identity crisis. out of sheer desperation and anxiety, I took several free online personality assessments and character strength surveys. I now know who I am and what my strengths and weaknesses are. Whew, that is a relief.

The first personality assessment I took resulted in my basic personality as a Phlegmatic Sanguine. Which is odd, because the phlegmatic is a Introverted, by standard, Pessimist. While a Sanguine is an Extroverted, Talker, and an optimist. Which would seem like a bit of a contradiction if it wasn't for my constant mixed emotions and lack of personal understanding.

The second self assessment test I took was the Personal DNA: your true self report, with the result of a Generous creator. It outlines the importance of relationships in my life, and my generosity towards friends and family. I am also a creator, eager to explore new experiences, and be innovative and resourceful.

The last of the assessments was from the Authentic Happiness website. The assessment was 240 questions of personal opinion of myself in several situations. The results were:
1.Appreciation of beauty and excellence
2.Honesty, Authenticity, Genuineness
3. Leadership
4.Forgiveness and Mercy
5.Social Intelligence

Taking these three self-assessment tests proved to be very useful in finding key strengths and personality types of who I am. I can use these results to my advantage in the future by focusing on my strengths to tackle problems, I gain confidence from having a better understanding of who I am.

If I lost my job.

Supporting a family on a single salary is hard. With seven children, a recently disabled wife, and her elderly father suffering from Dementia, Turrets, and Obsessive Compulsive Disorder; losing my day job would be catastrophic. In fact, to call it catastrophic would be an understatement.

So, in today's troubled economy, I've decided to make sure I have a backup plan if I were to lose my job. Considering my past experience with computers when I was an adolescent, and the computer science courses I took in high school, I have desirable skills in the area of PC repair. Heck, how much can computers I worked on in high school changed in 25 years? It would be a secure income and business of PC repair on mostly home-user clients. I could charge based on parts and services done on computers, and offer free annual computer diagnostics to make life-time clients. To be self-employed and work my own hours. I almost wish I would get fired!

There you have it, my Mid-Life plan B, if you will. Fail Proof.

one and only,